Khamenei Warns US: Don't Mess With Iran

Iran's supreme leader warned the United States today that any measures taken against Tehran over an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington would elicit a "resolute" response. "If US officials have some delusions, (they must) know that any unsuitable act, whether political or security, will meet a resolute response from the Iranian nation," state TV quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

Khamenei said that the US accused Iran of terror in order to divert attention from its economic woes and from the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. "By attributing an absurd and meaningless accusation to a few Iranians, they tried ... to show that Iran is a supporter of terrorism ... This conspiracy didn't work and won't work," he said. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also dismissed US accusations as a fabricated "scenario." "Iran is a civilized nation and doesn't need to resort to assassination," Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying today. "The culture of terror belongs to you," he said, addressing the United States. (More Iran stories.)